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PC-BSD® 9.2 added a graphical Package Manager utility to Control Panel which can be used to manage
installed desktops and system components. It can also be used as a front-end to the FreeBSD packages collection. The advantage of installing software using this utility is that any software installed this way will be tracked by Update Manager. If you prefer to start this utility from the command line, type pc-su pc-pkgmanager.

Figure 7.2a shows Package Manager with its categories expanded. This sample system uses NVIDIA for graphics and the default desktop manager of KDE was kept during the installation. This default view is known as Basic View.

Figure 7.2a: Viewing Installed Components

To install or uninstall components, check the boxes for the components that you wish to install, uncheck the boxes for the components that you wish to remove, then click the "Apply" button to perform the requested operations.

To instead manage FreeBSD packages, click View ➜ Advanced to change to Advanced View. This view is shown in Figure 7.2b with the editors category expanded.

Figure 7.2b: Managing FreeBSD Packages

The search utility can be used to find packages to install. Alternately, if you know the software category, expand it and check the software you would like to install. As you browse, you can select multiple packages. If you click an application name, its Package Information screen will display, as seen in the example in Figure 7.2c.

Figure 7.2c: Viewing a Package's Information

The Package Information is divided into three tabs:

Description: displays the name and version of the package, its download size, the URL to its homepage, and a brief description.

Options: shows the options compiled into the package. Options will be listed as either on or off.

Dependencies: lists any additional packages that will be installed as dependencies of the selected package.

Once you have made your selections, click the "Apply" button to install the selected software.

THIS PART IS BEING UPDATED

pc-metapkgmanager is the back-end command line utility used by the PC-BSD® installer, Update Manager, and Warden® to manage meta-packages. Meta-packages are like system components, and include supported and unsupported desktops, development utilities, hardware drivers, and miscellaneous applications such as MythTV or XBMC.

Beginning with version 9.1, PC-BSD® uses metapkgsets to determine which system components are available and which applications are installed with each system component. Currently, two metapkgsets are available: pcbsd which defines the available desktop components, and warden which defines the components available when creating a jail with Warden® or installing a PC-BSD® server. You can view the contents of these metapkgsets on trac[1].

The pc-metapkgmanager command can be used at the command line to install or delete meta-packages, update to the latest package set, or to change the default metapkgset. If you type the command without any options, it will display its usage:

pc-metapkgmanager

usage: pc-metapkgmanager [options]
Options:
add pkg1,pkg2 <loc> -- Add the specified list of meta-packages
<loc> should be a FTP / HTTP url where pkg_add
can fetch packages, or an absolute path to
location of pkg files on disk.
checkup -- Check for updates to pkgs
del pkg1,pkg2 -- Delete the specified list of meta-packages
list -- List the available meta-packages
status <pkg> -- List the status of the specified meta-packages
update pkg,pkg2 <loc> -- Update system packages. Can use 'all' or <pkg,pkg2>.
<loc> should be a FTP / HTTP url where pkg_add
can fetch packages, or an absolute path to
location of pkg files on disk.
--pkgset <pkgset> -- Change default pkgset we are using

To delete an installed meta-package, specify its name. Only the superuser can uninstall meta-packages. As seen in the following example, pc-metapkgmanager automatically determines which dependent packages are still needed by other applications and which can be safely removed.

Upgrading Meta-Packages

pc-metapkgmanager can also be used to determine if any meta-packages are out of date and to update meta-packages. To determine if any meta-packages have newer versions:

pc-metapkgmanager checkup
All packages are up to date!

In this example, all meta-packages are at their latest versions. If any were out of date, you would instead receive the message "The following package updates are available:" followed by the names of the out-of-date meta-packages.

To update a meta-package, use the pc-metapkgmanager update command followed by the name of the specific meta-package or the word all to update all out-of-date meta-packages.